Lucid Dreaming: An Introduction (by Emanla Eraton)
Introduction Have you ever thought of your dreams as your own personal world? Have you ever wanted to do the impossible? Lucid dreaming may be the best thing you have ever learned you could do. Lucid dreaming is the act of being aware you are dreaming while doing so. There are many uses for lucid dreaming. We'll explore these later. Right now, we'll see how lucid dreaming works. When you dream, your body is paralyzed, and you enter a universe of your mind's creation. This place is known as your dreamscape. Every time you dream, you enter your dreamscape. Your dreamscape is made of your memories and events in your day. :D Regular dreams When you dream regularly, you are not aware you are dreaming. Anything that you would normally consider odd or strange in the real world seems perfectly normal in a regular dream. In a lucid dream, however, you would know it is not normal. For example, if the sky was green in a regular dream, you would think nothing of it. In a lucid dream, you would know the green sky is not real. Methods There are several ways to get lucid in a dream. Once such way is reality checks. Reality checks are a way to see if you are dreaming at that moment or not. An easy reality check is reading text. Read a small portion of text (a phrase or sentence is ideal), and look away for a few seconds. Then look back at the text. If it has changed, you are most likely dreaming. This works best with text on paper. The point of reality checks is that they will become a habit, and you will start to do them in your dreams. Another method of becoming lucid is called MILD (mnemonic induction of lucid dreams). To use this technique, you must close your eyes and repeat this phrase: # I'm dreaming. # I'm dreaming. # I'm dreaming. and so on. The way this works is that in the part of sleep when you are entering the dream, you will realize you are dreaming. This technique has an advantage over reality checks, that you will know you are dreaming from the moment you start dreaming. Uses There are many uses for lucid dreaming. Since the physical and social limitations of the real world do not apply in a lucid dream (or any dream), you are free to do things you may never get a chance to really do. For example, you can fly in a lucid dram. You can breathe under water, you can transform yourself, you can do anything. The only limit is your imagination. Other websites Here are some resources on lucid dreaming and related subjects. * ld4all.com * The Lucid Crossroads - has to do with dream sharing, an advanced lucid dreaming subject * del.icio.us tag "lucid-dreaming" * Lucid dreaming tutorial at Wikibooks, this one is excellent From Lucid Dreaming: An Introduction (by Emanla Eraton) at Wikinfo (licensed under the GFDL)